Mentzelia obscura

Pacific blazing star

Family: Loasaceae · Type: annual · Native

Pacific blazing star is a California native annual found in the Mojave Desert bioregion in sandy to rocky washes, creosote-bush scrub, and Joshua-tree woodland at elevations of 200 to 1,600 meters. Flowering from February to March, this plant produces bright yellow flowers 3 to 7 millimeters long with an orange to yellow base. Growing with erect to decumbent stems 8 to 45 centimeters tall, it has variable green leaves ranging from 1 to 22 centimeters long and can be entire or lobed. Its leaves vary widely in shape, sometimes entire and sometimes deeply lobed, creating a distinctive appearance across different plants. The fruit is curved less than 250 degrees, 11 to 31 millimeters long, with tan seeds approximately 1 millimeter in size.

Habitat: Sandy to rocky washes, slopes, roadsides, creosote-bush scrub, blackbush scrub, Joshua-tree woodland

Bloom period: Feb-Mar

Elevation: 200-1616 m

Bioregions: D

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Riverside, Kern, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tulare

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.